Long Beach City College baseball head coach Casey Crook has learned that recruiting has become more time consuming over the years. In past years, recruiting wouldn’t begin until April, whereas now recruiting is year round.
Crook and his coaching staff’s goal when they recruit is, “to find players that can develop in our system, transfer and play at four-year colleges and compete as a team for championships for LBCC, conference championships and state championships.”
Said Crook, “We also like to give a few underdogs an opportunity along the way.”
The interim athletic director Bill Husak said, “it’s very competitive among schools for players in this area. And I trust Coach Crook and his coaching staff to talk to a lot of good players to ultimately create a competitive roster.”
Crook believes that, “education is the key to success beyond playing baseball,” he tells the players he recruits that “education takes you further in life than the game or the sport of baseball.”
“In baseball if you work hard to do everything every coach or scout tells you (to) do, there’s less than a one percent chance that you will make a living playing baseball. I tell recruits that if they work hard to do everything every teacher or counselor tells them to do, there is almost a one hundred percent chance they will earn a degree that will help them make a living,” said Crook.
When asked about recruiting during the pandemic, Crook said, “I think my assistant coaches and I did a good job last spring and summer.”
Cook said that there is “excellent new talent in the program.”
Cook also said that there is a big roster right now because many sophomores took advantage of the extra year granted to spring sport athletes that had their season stop early because of the lockdowns.
“It’s disappointing that we haven’t been able to work with any of the athletes on the field or really get to know the new players,” said Cook.
The Vikings Baseball team currently has a large roster due to many sophomores taking advantage of the extra year granted due to the lockdowns in the middle of the season, ultimately causing the season to stop early.
“It’s disappointing that we haven’t been able to work with any of the athletes on the field or really get to know the new players,” said Cook.